WHO head defends handling of coronavirus pandemic against Trump criticism

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WHO head defends handling of coronavirus pandemic against Trump criticism

By Stephanie Nebehay and Emma Farge

FILE PHOTO: Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference on the situation of the coronavirus (COVID-2019), in Geneva, Switzerland, February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

GENEVA (Reuters) - The head of the World Health Organization gave a strident defence of his agency's handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism and suggestion that Washington could review its funding for the agency.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for unity and a halt to "politicization" of the global health crisis, specifically urging China and the United States to show "honest leadership".

Tedros said that he expected U.S. funding to continue with traditional bipartisan support.

U.S. contributions to the WHO in 2019 exceeded $400 million, almost double the second largest country donor, according to U.S. figures. The WHO website shows the United States as its top donor, contributing nearly 15% of the budget.

"We have kept the world informed about the latest data, information and evidence," Tedros said, noting that Thursday would mark 100 days since China first notified the organization of cases of "pneumonia with unknown cause" on December 31.

Tedros, a former foreign minister of Ethiopia, also rejected Trump's suggestion that the WHO was "China-centric", saying: "We are close to every nation, we are colour-blind."

The head of the World Health Organization gave a strident defense of his agency's handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism and suggestion that Washington could review its funding for the agency.

Earlier, Dr Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to Tedros, also defended the U.N. agency's relationship with China, saying its work with Beijing authorities was important to understand the outbreak.

"It was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this," said Aylward, who led a WHO expert mission to China in February.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that now was not the time to assess the global response to the pandemic, calling instead for the international community to focus on working in solidarity to stop the virus.

Tedros said his U.N. agency would conduct its usual assessment of its performance after the emergency and draw lessons about its strengths and weaknesses, adding: "We make mistakes like other human beings."

He summarised his advice as: "Please, unity at national level, no using COVID for political points. Second, honest solidarity at the global level. And honest leadership from the U.S. and China."

"The most powerful should lead the way and please quarantine COVID politics," he added, referring to COVID-19, the highly contagious, sometimes deadly illness caused by the new coronavirus.

Tedros said that China and United States should follow the example of the former Soviet Union and the United States who launched a 10-year global campaign in 1967 that eradicated smallpox, a disease then killing 2 million people annually.

Tedros rejected "racist slurs" against him, which he said had originated in Taiwan, and disclosed that he had also received a death threat during the crisis.

"We are losing people, why would I care about being attacked when people are dying?" he said, noting there were already "60,000 body bags" after more than 1.3 million infections.

"We will have many body bags in front of us if we don't behave," he added.

(Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Zurich and Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Bill Berkrot, William Maclean)

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"Unity" tell that to the 10's of thousands dead and 1.4 million infected sick with the disease because of your bumbling incompetent handling of the early warning signs: ( from News.com)

A group of World Health Organisation (WHO) doctors voted not to declare a global health emergency for the COVID-19 virus earlier, as cases continued to grow in China.

An investigation by Sky News Australia Discovered the decision of whether or not to implement the health emergency and introduce travel restrictions was put to a vote in late January, but those in favour of the early action were outvoted.

After this vote, WHO released a statement saying the Emergency Committee expressed “divergent views” on whether the virus constituted an international public health emergency.

It wasn’t until a week later on January 30 that an international public health emergency was declared...

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Tedros, a former foreign minister of Ethiopia, also rejected Trump's suggestion that the WHO was "China-centric", saying: "We are close to every nation, we are colour-blind."

'It is pretty much clear he is a shield for Beijing,' said a senior British Cabinet source. 'His comments congratulating China for exemplary handing of the crisis are not borne out by the reality of events.'

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A post with content from an unapproved YouTube source has been removed, the following forum rule applies to YouTube as well:

18) Social Media content is not to be used as source material unless it is from a recognized or approved news media source, the source of any such material (Twitter, Facebook etc.) should always be shown.

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A young English expat teacher living and working in Wuhan was interviewed on BBC World last night. He suffered Covid-19 in November last year and stayed in Wuhan for the duration. The despicable Chinese authorities covered up this pandemic outbreak for months and even gagged early whistle blowers. One of them, a doctor, paid for this with his life. Are we really to believe that the WHO knew nothing about this? Of course they were complicit. The Chinese and these morons should be tried for genocide in the international courts once this is all over.

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Fair enough to criticize the U.S. with your comments now turn around and do the same with China! Instead of deflecting the criticism from the U.S. now lecture China about not disclosing the data so badly needed to research the Virus as of today they still haven't.

Time to investigate the bank accounts of this guy he is a liar and has no business running such an organization. Time for the U.S. to stop funding corruption same for the United Nation. Time to withdraw and start all over!